Athletes talk about recovery in terms of muscle soreness, joint health, and getting back to training. What rarely makes the conversation is skin—despite the fact that athletic skin takes a beating every single day.
The chafing. The friction burns. The inflammation from repetitive motion. The sweat sitting in pores. The environmental exposure from outdoor training. And yes, the accelerated aging that comes from oxidative stress and constant tissue repair demands.
On our Washington State farm, we've seen this firsthand. With four college athletes in our family—two competing at the Division I NCAA level—we've watched what intense training does to skin over weeks, months, and years. It's why MSM became non-negotiable in every product we make, and why our Muscle Cream and Active Cream have developed such loyal followings among athletes.
What Training Actually Does to Your Skin
Let's be specific about the challenges athletic skin faces.
Inflammation: Every training session creates micro-damage in muscles and connective tissue. This is normal and necessary—it's how you get stronger. But that inflammatory response doesn't stay contained to muscles. It affects surrounding tissues, including skin.
Oxidative Stress: Intense exercise generates free radicals as a byproduct of increased cellular metabolism. Antioxidant systems work overtime to neutralize this oxidative stress, but they often can't keep up. The result is cellular damage that accelerates aging and impairs tissue function.
Friction and Mechanical Stress: Depending on your sport, your skin deals with constant rubbing, compression, and shearing forces. Think about a runner's feet, a swimmer's shoulders, a cyclist's contact points, or a weightlifter's hands. This mechanical stress damages the skin barrier and creates ongoing repair demands.
Sweat and Heat: Prolonged sweating changes skin's pH, can clog pores, and creates an environment where bacteria thrive. The heat from exercise dilates blood vessels and can contribute to conditions like rosacea flares.
Environmental Exposure: Outdoor athletes face additional challenges from UV radiation, wind, temperature extremes, and pollution—all of which stress and age skin.
MSM: The Athletic Recovery Ingredient
MSM entered the athletic world through joint health. Endurance athletes, weightlifters, and anyone putting chronic stress on their joints discovered that supplemental MSM could help with comfort and recovery. The research supported it: MSM's anti-inflammatory properties made it valuable for managing exercise-induced joint issues.
But here's what many athletes discovered: the same properties that help joints also help skin.
Anti-Inflammatory Support: MSM helps modulate the inflammatory response that follows training. Applied topically to areas of stress or soreness, it can help calm the inflammatory cascade rather than letting it run unchecked.
Sulfur for Repair: Your body uses sulfur to synthesize collagen and other structural proteins. After training damages tissue, repair processes kick in—and those processes need raw materials. MSM provides bioavailable sulfur directly to the skin and underlying tissues.
Antioxidant Support: MSM supports glutathione production, your body's primary internal antioxidant. This helps address the oxidative stress that accumulates during intense exercise.
The Testimonials Tell the Story
When athletes describe their experience with MSM-containing products like our Muscle Cream and Active Cream, a pattern emerges.
"Works like magic, reducing recovery time and minimizes soreness," one customer reported. That word—"magic"—comes up repeatedly, which tells us something important. Athletes, as a group, are skeptical about products. They've seen too many overhyped supplements and recovery tools that didn't deliver. When they call something "magic," they mean it actually works.
The specific benefits athletes mention most often: faster recovery between training sessions, less persistent soreness, skin that holds up better to repeated stress, and quicker healing of the minor abrasions and irritations that come with athletic life.
Post-Training Application
Timing matters with recovery products. The period immediately after training is when your body shifts into repair mode—and when applied support can make the biggest difference.
We formulated our Active Cream and Muscle Cream specifically for post-training application. The texture absorbs quickly without leaving greasy residue that would be unpleasant on sweaty skin. The ingredients get to work supporting recovery when your body needs it most.
For many athletes, this becomes ritual: finish training, shower, apply MSM cream to areas of stress. It's simple. It's consistent. And it accumulates into real differences over time.
Beyond Soreness: Skin Quality for Athletes
Here's something that surprises many athletes: consistent MSM use improves overall skin quality, not just post-workout recovery.
The sulfur in MSM supports collagen and elastin production ongoing—not just during repair from exercise damage. Over time, this means more resilient skin that holds up better to athletic demands. Fewer problems with chafing. Better recovery from the minor cuts and abrasions that are part of active life. Less of the rough, weathered skin texture that develops from years of outdoor training.
This matters for more than vanity. Healthy, resilient skin is a functional advantage. It's less prone to infections from minor wounds. It maintains better barrier function to protect underlying tissues. It recovers faster from the inevitable stresses of athletic life.
The Family Testing Ground
Our products exist because our family needed them. Before we were a skincare company, we were a family dealing with the real-world challenges of athletic skin.
When you have four college athletes under one roof—with the training demands of Division I NCAA competition—you can't afford products that don't work. The feedback is immediate and honest. If something doesn't help, you hear about it. If it does, it becomes part of the routine.
MSM proved itself in this environment. It wasn't marketed to us. We discovered its benefits through experience, then built products around those discoveries. Our Muscle Cream and Active Cream aren't theoretical formulations—they're solutions that emerged from practical need and real testing.
Athletes of All Levels
You don't have to be a college athlete to benefit from athletic skincare. The weekend warrior doing CrossFit three times a week experiences the same types of skin stress (just perhaps at lower intensity) as a Division I competitor.
Runners, cyclists, swimmers, weightlifters, yoga practitioners, Pilates enthusiasts, hikers, climbers—anyone who regularly pushes their body puts demands on their skin that sedentary people don't face.
MSM-based skincare supports these demands at every level. Whether you're training for the Olympics or just trying to stay healthy and active, your skin deserves the same consideration as your muscles and joints.
The Recovery Stack
Athletes think in terms of stacks—combinations of approaches that work together. Sleep, nutrition, hydration, mobility work, and yes, supplementation all contribute to recovery and performance.
Topical MSM deserves a place in that stack. It's not replacing anything else you're doing right. It's adding another layer of support, specifically targeting the skin and superficial tissues that other recovery approaches often neglect.
Used consistently over time, it accumulates into real advantages: faster recovery, more resilient skin, fewer days lost to minor skin issues, and simply better quality of life as an active person.
From Our Farm to Your Training Routine
Every product we make on our Washington State farm contains MSM. For athletes, our Muscle Cream and Active Cream are specifically designed for post-training use.
We didn't create these products for marketing reasons. We created them because our family needed them. And the feedback from athletes across disciplines tells us others need them too.
Your training demands a lot from your body. Your skin shouldn't be an afterthought in recovery. Give it the support it needs, and it'll support you through every training session, every competition, every active day.
